Renzo Picasso shared his last name with legendary Spanish artist Pablo Picasso and his first name with another, more well-known Italian architect: Renzo Piano.

But Renzo Giovanni Battista Picasso, born in 1880 in Genoa, Italy, was clearly his own man. An inventor, engineer, and designer with a taste for the fantastical, his whimsical and weird ideas reflect what urbanists of a century ago envisioned as the American city of the future.

His father and grandfather, both Genoese architects and urban planners, had made significant contributions to his hometown. But unlike them, Picasso wasn’t bound by geography or tradition.

2018 will be a fine year indeed for those of us who love to see the left drink its own poison. And as leftists hoist their goblets of organic, vegan, fair-trade, gluten-free hemlock, I will meet it with a glass of my own filled with champagne.

Spotify has been hit with a copyright lawsuit seeking $1.6 billion in damages by a publishing company which administers song compositions by Tom Petty, Dan Auerbach, Rivers Cuomo, Stevie Nicks, Neil Young, and others. Wixen Music Publishing filed the lawsuit in California federal court on December 29, alleging the streaming giant is using Petty’s “Free Fallin'” and tens of thousands of other songs without license or compensation.

The lawyers will make out like bandits.

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The ONT Musical Interlude

January 3,1970, B J Thomas started a four week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head.' The song was featured in the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. via thisdayinmusic.com

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January 3, 1976, The Bay City Rollers went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Saturday Night.' At the height of their US success, the Scottish group signed a deal to promote breakfast cereal. via thisdayinmusic.com

According to the Tax Policy Center, Americans who earn between $48,000 and $86,000 per year will see a tax cut of approximately $18 a week, or $1,000 per year, from the new law. Anyone who can add can see $1,000 a year is not a lot of money per se, but it is some money. It’s certainly more than zero—can we all agree with that? Yet still, many couldn’t help but deride both the bill and its tax cuts for average families, saying this amount of money back in people’s pockets is small and basically irrelevant.

Mike Tyson has done quite a bit of work to change his image in recent years. After the former heavyweight boxing great fell on hard times, spending time in jail after being convicted of rape, he continued his boxing career in earnest, then fell deeply into drugs. After hitting bottom, he got honest with himself and his fans by starting a one-man show that didn’t shy away from his crimes, mistakes, and substance abuse issues (he doesn’t drink anymore). Part of his rehabbed life involved marijuana, something that he used for years in his fighting career. Now he’s taking it to the next level with an enormous 40-acre ranch 60 miles southwest of Death Valley in California that will grow and celebrate the newly legalized plant.

He’s a man of principle and character. Thus, he’s highly likely to disappoint all the right people. His new progressive friends will be angry the instant that he demonstrates once again that he’s an articulate supporter of conservative social, economic, and military policies. MAGA-land will unleash when he holds Trump accountable for his words and actions.

But isn’t this exactly what we want in a conservative senator, to advance conservative ideas without surrendering to a cult of personality? I don’t know if he’ll run, but if he does we’re already seeing a preview of the distorted debate to come.